Electrical relays



Aug 30, 1960 B. LAZICH 2,951,134

ELECTRICAL RELAYS Filed Oct. 3, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet l Fbg, 1

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ELECTRICAL RELAYS Filed Oct. 3, 1957 5 Sheets-$heet 5 Fig.1?

INVENTOR. BRAuKo LAz/cH H15 ATTGEAIEY United. States Patent ELECTRICAL RELAYS Branho Lazich, ll Joel Place, Port Washington, N.Y.

Filed Oct. 3, 15357, Ser. No. 687,969

14 Claims. (Cl.200-87) This invention relates generally to relays and more particularly to relays that are very small in size and generally known as micro-miniature or crystal case relays.

Small relays present the problem of providing consistent performance under extreme environmental conditions without further sacrifice of switching capacity. One of the principal reasons for their failure is the lack of positive contact pressure and true operation under terrific vibrations and shock conditions. They must be able to carry higher currents, operate at higher acceleration during shock and vibration and greater contact loads under conditions of high ambient temperatures, higher switching speeds, less contact bounce and longer life to withstand the normal conditions for air-borne equipment.

The relay comprising this invention is a micro-miniature relay or crystal case relay having improved performance owing to the force generated by the actuator to provide a heavy contact pressure to carry high currents under heavy shock and vibration and with no contact bounce.

Other objects and advantages appear hereinafter in the following description and claims.

The accompanying drawings show for the purpose of exemplification without limiting the invention or claims thereto certain practical embodiments of the invention W ierein:

Fig. l is a sectional View of the relay comprising this invention.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an end elevation of the relay with the cover removed.

Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the relay with the cover removed.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a pole piece.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the motor support' bridge bracket.

Fig. 7 is a view of the under-side of the relay showing the terminals projecting from the base.

Fig. 8 is a top plan view of the base showing the contact members.

Fig. 9 is an end View of the base plate showing the upper and lower contacts.

Fig. 10 is a side elevation of the relay base with the contact mounted thereon.

Fig. 11 is a plan View of the contact springs shown in Fig. 10.

Fig. 12 a view in vertical section of another form of a micro-miniature relay.

Fig. 13 is a view in end elevation of the structure shown in Fig. 12 with the cover removed.

Referring to Figs. 1 to 4 of the drawings, the relay comprises the base 1 which is preferably made of iron and is provided with a reduced perimetral portion 2 forming a shoulder 3 to receive the case or cover 4 which slides down over the iron and is preferably made Patented Au 30, 1960 ice of non-magnetic material, such as brass, and it may be soldered or otherwise sealed with the base.

The base 1 is provided with a series of openings 5 for receiving the glass insulating beads 6, each of which carries a conductor or terminal member, of which eight are shown. The terminal members as illustrated in Fig. 7 may be identified in any desirable manner, the terminal 7 being the one end of the coil winding and the head that extends therethrough may be made a brilliant color, which diiferentiates from the other glass beads 6 to indicate that this is the positive terminal of the coil for the purpose of connecting the circuit thereto to properly orient the front and back contacts connected to the other terminals. The opposite end of the coil is connected to the terminal 8. The front and back contacts are indicated at 1% and ill at one end of the relay and 12 and 13 at the other end of the relay. Depending upon the polarity of the coil the character of contact employed in this relay may be reversed, that is, the front contact may be considered the back contact or vice versa.

The two remaining terminals 14 and 35 are the heels or arms that connect with either of the front and back contacts, the terminal 14 being associated with contacts 10 and Isl. and the terminal 15 being associated with the contacts 12 and 13. As shown in Figs. 1 and 6 the base 1 has mounted thereon the motor support or bracket member 16 which is preferably made of nonmagnetic material and like the base it is not employed to conduct electricity so that they both may be made of any suitable material and could possibly be made of a nomnetallic material. However, for the purpose of simplicity of assembly both the base and the motor support bracket 16 are of metal, the former being iron and the latter being nonmagnetic.

As illustrated in Fig. 6 the bracket in has four legs 17, each of which is secured to the base in any suitable manner and the deck of the bracket or bridge is provided with a central opening 18 and diagonally positioned openings 2%, the latter of which receive the projections 21 on the bottom of the pole piece member 22 which is preferably made of Norway iron having a high magnetic permeability and a low magnetic retentivity.

A second and upper pole piece 23 opposes the pole piece 22 and is likewise provided with projections 21 which fit into corresponding openings 24 in the case or cover 4. Each of the pole piece members 22 and 23 is provided with a central opening 25 to receive the screws 26 and secure them to the molded plastic bobbin 27. Bobbin 27 could be made of metal with the surfaces properly insulated from the winding. Thus the relay assembly is secured at one end to the base to the fitting on the legs 17 of the bridge or motor bracket 16 and through the molded plastic bobbin 27 and to the pole pieces 22 and 23 to the casing and to the bridge respectively. Thus opposite ends of the motor member which is indicated at 3d are anchored relative to the base and the case.

The molded plastic bobbin has two spool sections 31 and 32 for receiving the coil of the motor in two sections as indicated at 33 and 34. These coil sections may be connected in series or in multiple to gain advantage of two different voltages, or they can be used individually, one coil operating the relay in one direction and the other in the opposite direction. However, when they are connected together their magnetic polarity is the same.

The molded plastic spool 27 has an open center or core opening as indicated at 2? which is preferably rectangular in cross section, as illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3, and the ends of the pole pieces 22 and 23 extend over the opposite sides of the molded plastic bobbin and are reduced to form the pole faces indicated at 35 and 36 in Figs. 1 and 3, the opposite ends of the pole piece having the pole faces 37 and 38 as shown in Fig. 1. It Will be noted that these pole faces stop short of the open center 28 in the molded plastic bobbin 2'7.

The molded plastic bobbin 27 as illustrated in Fig. 4 is provided with vertical slots 4@ and 41 that extend sub stantially the full depth as the spools 31 and 32 and have mounted therein the permanent magnet members 42 and 43 which have their north poles at the top and south poles at the bottom as indicated in Fig. 2. Thus the pole piece 23 provides two north pole faces, one at 35 and the other at 37, whereas the pole piece 22 provides two south pole faces 36 and 38 because the north and south pole faces of the permanent magnets 42 and 43 engage the inside of the C-shaped pole pieces 22 and 23 and this contact between these soft iron pole pieces and the respective permanent magnets thus energizes the pole pieces in accordance with the position of the permanent magnets. The permanent magnets 42 and 43 are constructed in the manner shown in Figs. 3 and 4.

Intermediate of the open center of the molded plastic bobbin 27 is mounted a fulcrum or pivot pin 44 which is transverse of the bobbin and is held in place by the permanent magnets 42 and 43 when the latter are clamped in place by the pole pieces 22 and 23 when secured by V the mounted screws 26 to clamp the permanent magnets in position. This pivot pin 44 has pivotally mounted thereon the armature member 45 which extends through the central opening 28 and projects beyond the north and south poles at either end of the relay. The armature member is preferably made of soft magnetic material, such as Norway iron and is provided with an opening in its center to receive the pivot pin 44 and the rectangular opening 28 is sufficiently large to permit this armature member to pivot and swing laterally within this lays which require considerable force to produce sufiicient contact pressure that prevents the bouncing of contacts or the opening of contacts due to vibration. Thus this magnetic circuit is an improvement of this invention.

The opposite ends of the armature are reduced as illustrated at 46 to receive the end of an insulated contact actuator member 47 which is provided with a round hole to slip over the reduced end of the armature 45 and the insulated contact actuator 47 is held in place by the clamp ring 50 which prevents the insulated contact actuator member 47 from sliding off the armature. Since one actuator 47 is up and the other actuator is down owing to the pivoted position of the armature 45 the contacts supported by the base 1 are thereby selected as front contacts, Whereas the opposing contacts would then be considered the back contacts. As shown in Figs. 1 and each of the heel contacts of this relay as indicated at 51 is made up of two flexible contact members 52 and 53 having noble metal contacts 54 thereon. The heel or fixed end of these flexible contacts are secured together with a spacer 55 which if made of insulating material wouldrnake the contact members 52 and 53 inde- V pendent of each other and would require additional tenninals. However as shown the spacer 55 is metallic and is secured with the ends of the flexible contacts to the terminal member 14 which extends thereto and is riveted over as indicated at 56. g

The free end of the flexible contact member 52 has an offset at its outer end to form the finger 57, where 4 the flexible contact member 53 has a similar finger which extends to form the hook member 55;.

After these flexible contacts are mounted on the respective terminals the hook member 53 is passed through the openings and the lower end of the insulated contact actuator 47 and the contact members 52 and 53 are drawn together so as to permit the finger 5'7 to also extend through the hoie 66*. Since contact members 52 and 53 are normally bent in a diverging angle of ten degrees as shown in Fig. 10 when they are flexed to be drawn together and hooked in position as shown in Fig. 1 in the openings 6t) of the insulated contact actuator 47 they provide force outwardly when the contact member 52 is engaged with the contact 61. As shown in Fig. l the finger 57 is further extended toward the hook being out of contact with the material forming the hole in the insulated contact actuator. Thus the force required to flex the contact member 52 to the position shown repre sents the contact pressure between the contact 54 and the stationary or front contact 61, which is also provided with a noble metal contact surface -62 as illustrated in Fig. 9, which contact is connected to the terminal 11. The contact 53 when the armature is in the opposite position has its button 54 engage contact surface as on the contact member 63 that is in turn attached to the terminal member 16) as shown in Fig. 1-0.

It will be seen that the contact pressure between the flexible contact member that has its button 54 in engagement with the corresponding button 62 provides a contact 7 pressure that is determined solely upon the flexibility of that particular contact member which is independent of the other contact arm and is also independent of the magnetic force on the armature. The contact arm which is not in engagement actually opposes the portion of the magnetic traction on the armature, but this opposition of a contact arm on the armature is insuflicient to endanger false operation of the relay when subjected to vibrations of considerable frequency even though the contact arms are subjected to a considerable load.

The relay shown in Fig. 1 has a second set of contacts similar to the contacts 52 and 53. These are indicated by the contact arms 64 and 65 which are mounted on the terminal member 15 and their respective stationary contacts 66 and 67 are connected to the respective terminals 12 and 13. Thus as shown in Fig. 1 the stationary contacts 61 and 67 are the front contacts and the back contacts are indicated at 63 and 66 respectively.

Thus by changing the polarity of the coil in the form of the two windings 33 and 34 the magnetic polarity of the armature 45 is reversed. When the energization of the coil of the motor 30 changes the magnetic polarity of the armature the fixed pole faces of the pole pieces 22 and 23 thus force the armature to swing on its pivot to the opposite position where it is held by the pole faces regardless of whether the winding continues its deenergization or not. Thus the permanent magnet type structure illustrated functions to provide a force in both repelling and attracting the armature, which increases the action of the armature and thus improves the operation of the relay, which is an important feature of this invention.

Referring now to Fig. 12, the relay 70 comprises a single coil winding 71 having an open center indicated at 72 and a pole piece indicated at 73 the opposite ends of which form the pole faces 74 and 75. The armature member 76 is made of the same material. However it is not pivoted intermediate of its ends and it lies in the central opening 72 with the permanent magnet member 77 which has a north at one end and a south at the opposite end. The flux generated by the coil 71 will induce a magnetic polarity in the armature 76, causing the same to either lie in close engagement with the pole faces 78 and 79 of the permanent magnet 77 or be repelled thereby and engage the pole faces 74 and of the pole piece 73. Thus the armature 76 moves laterally and 32? of the opening 72, both ends moving in the same direction and the insulated contact actuator member 47 will thus raise both of the flexible contact arms to engage the contacts 61 and 66 simultaneously or lower both of the flexible contact members to engage the contacts 63 and 67 simultaneously, the former being the front contacts and the latter being the back contacts.

In this structure the pole piece 73 functions in response to the coil rather than in response to the permanent magnet. However, the armature functions in response to the coil in both structures.

Another distinction in the structure shown in Figs. 12 and 13 lies in the fact that the electromagnetic flux induced by the coil will oppose the magnetic flux of the permanent magnet in one direction and will add to the magnetic flux of the permanent magnet in the opposite direction. The selected position of the winding of the coil and the direction of current therethrough may be advantageously made so that the electromagnetic flux of the coil is in the same direction as the permanent magnet. However, as the permeability of the permanent magnet is very low, most of the coil flux will pass through the armature, thus setting up magnetic poles identical to those of the permanent magnet, and the two will tend to repel each other. Thus, the armature flux opposes the magnetic flux of the permanent magnet when the armature is against the permanent magnet as shown in Fig. 12. This provides a greater strength forcing the armature into contact with the pole faces 74 and 75 when the electromagnet flux formed by the coil induces the same polarity in the armature as that in the permanent magnet. Thus the coil aids the permanent magnet in forcing the armature up.

I claim:

1. A relay having a base on which is mounted an open center coil means with an electromagnetic circuit means that extends exteriorly around said coil means and providing pole faces that cooperate with a soft iron movably mounted armature polarized by permanent magnet means and extending through the open center of the coil means to move laterally therein relative to said pole faces when magnetically energized by said coil means and having actuating connection to contact means supported from said base characterized by said armature actuating connection includes an actuating arm attached at one of its ends to one end of said armature, said contact means including movable and fixed contacts, said movable contact includes at least one independent spring contact secured at one end relative to said base and its free end attached to said actuating arm to move said contact spring when said armature is moved, said fixed contact including at least one independent contact member mounted on said base to be engaged by said spring contact when said armature is in one position.

2. A relay having a base on which is mounted an open center coil means With an electromagnetic circuit means that extends exteriorly around said coil means and providing pole faces that cooperate with a soft iron movably mounted armature polarized by permanent magnet means and extending through the open center of the coil means to move laterally therein relative to said pole faces when magnetically energized by said coil means and having actuating connection to contact means supported from said base characterized by said armature actuating connection includes an actuating arm attached at one of its ends to one end of said armature and having a socket, said contact means including movable and fixed contacts, said movable contact includes two spring contacts secured at one end relative to each other and to said base with their free ends diverging and engaging in said socket in said actuating arm, to maintain said spring contacts under compression and to move said contact springs when said armature is moved, said fixed contacts including two independent and opposed contacts mounted on said base, one to be engaged by one 6 of said spring contacts and the other to be engaged by the other of said spring contacts when said armature is in different positions.

3. The relay of claim 2 characterized in that when said spring contact is in contact engagement it is moved out of pressure engagement with said socket but is retained thereby.

4. The relay of claim 2 characterized in that one movable spring contact has a hook on its end to engage and hold said actuating arm with said spring contacts in said socket.

5. A relay having a base on which is mounted an open center coil means with an electromagnetic circuit means that extends exteriorly around said coil means and providing pole faces that cooperate with a soft iron movably mounted armature polarized by permanent magnet means and extending through the open center of the coil means to move laterally therein relative to said pole faces when magnetically energized by said coil means and having actuating connection to contact means supported from said base characterized by said armature actuating connection includes an actuating arm attached to each end of said armature, said contact means including movable and fixed contacts for each actuating arm, each movable contact includes two independent spring contacts secured at one end relative to said base with their free ends attached to one actuating arm to move said spring contacts when said armature is moved, said fixed contact including at least one independent contact member mounted on said base for each contact spring to be engaged by the same when said armature is in one position.

6. A relay having a base on which is mounted an open center coil means with an electromagnetic circuit means that extends exteriorly around said coil and providing pole faces that cooperate with a soft iron movably mounted armature polarized by permanent magnet means and extending through the open center of the coil to move laterally therein relative to said pole faces when magnetically energized by said coil and having actuating connection to contact means supported from said base characterized in that said actuating connection includes an insulated actuator pivoted to each end of said armature, and said contact means includes independent stationary contacts and at least two flexible contact members one having its free end supported by each insulated actuator to engage said independent stationary contacts to close a circuit when moved by said armature.

7. A relay having a base on which is mounted an open center coil means with an electromagnetic circuit means that extends exteriorly around said coil and providing pole faces that cooperate with a soft iron movably mounted armature polarized by permanent magnet means and extending through the open center of the coil to move laterally therein relative to said pole faces when magnetically energized by said coil and having actuating connection to contact means supported from said base characterized in that said open center coil means including a bobbin having spaced spool sections to receive windings and an outwardly open recess on each side of said bobbin and between said spool sections to receive said permanent magnet means, and said electromagnetic circuit means embracing the opposite sides of said bobbin to engage the ends of said permanent magnets.

8. The relay of claim 7 characterized by a bridge secured to one electromagnetic circuit means and to said base, and a cover enclosing over said relay and attached to said base.

9. The relay of claim 8 characterized by aligning projections between said cover and said other electromagnetic circuit means to align said cover with said relay remote of said base.

10. The relay of claim 9 characterized in that said cover is sealed on said base and said aligning projections extend through holes in said cover from which the ambient atmosphere within said cover i exhausted and said holes are sealed. r

11. A relay having a base on which is mounted an open center coil means with an electromagnetic circuit means that extends exteriorly around said coil means and providing pole faces that cooperate with a soft iron movably mounted armature polarized by' permanent magnet means and extending through the open center of the coil means to move laterally therein relative to said pole faces when magnetically energized by said coil means and having actuating connection to contact means supported from said base characterized in that said coil means is mounted in two sections on a bobbin having grooves transverse to said bobbin axis and between said coil sections to receive said permanent magnet means to polarize the pole faces of said electromagnetic circuit means.

12. The relay of claim 7 characterized by a pivot pin extending through said bobbin and terminating in said recesses to pivotally support said armature intermediate of its ends.

13. A relay having a base on which is mounted an open center coil means with an electromagnetic circuit means that extends exteriorly around said coil means and providing pole faces that cooperate with a soft iron movably mounted armature polarized by permanent magnet means and extending through the open center of the coil means to move laterally therein relative to said pole faces when magnetically energized by said coil means and having actuating connection to contact means supported from said base characterized in that said permanent magnet means lies parallel with said armature in the open center of said coil means and said armature moves in a lineal path laterally therein.

14. The relay of claim 13 characterized in that said magnetic path of said armature is completed with both of its ends engaging the opposite pole faces of said electromagnetic circuit means when in one position only.-

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,832,657 Rassow Nov. 17, 1931 2,238,224 Laing Apr. 15, 1941 2,238,913 Miller Apr. 22, 1941 2,350,663 Agnew June 6, 1944 2,443,784 Bullen et a1. June 22, 1948 2,454,973 Mason Nov. 30, 1948 2,718,568 Somers Sept. 20, 1955 

